plastship, a platform for the procurement and quality assurance of recycled plastics, and RecyClass, an initiative to improve the recyclability of packaging, have combined their strengths to help manufacturers meet the growing consumer demand for more sustainability.
plastship offers Europe-wide proof of recyclability
As a certification body, plastship evaluates and certifies the recyclability of plastic packaging based on the RecyClass method and supports brands and manufacturers in the design of recyclable packaging solutions. For consumers, easily recyclable packaging can be labelled. The result is the classification in a recyclability class (A to F) by certificate, a result report and a logo including certificate number.
Andreas Bastian, Founder and Managing Director of plastship, said: "When I buy a product, I want its packaging to be recycled. However, up to now I as a customer cannot really tell if a packaging is recycled, and if so, how well. For commercial or private end users, the question of recyclability refers directly to the input quality in recycling. If this improves, the quality of recycled plastics will also improve."
The challenge requires an international approach since materials often move across borders. A European standard in the assessment of recyclability therefore makes sense. This will make it easier for all players to orient themselves towards an assessment basis for the joint pursuit of sustainable goals and the promotion of the recycling economy for plastic packaging.
RecyClass brought together various players in the plastic packaging value chain to create uniform guidelines for the Design for Recycling, a standardised assessment method and test protocols for evaluating the recyclability of plastic packaging and new packaging technologies on the European market.
During a test, specifications from manufacturers are collected and analyzed using an online tool. Accredited auditors confirm the results by means of defined analyses and issue a certificate. The data and information on the collection, sorting, separability and recycling of packaging are considered EU-wide.